Note: mind model AKA mind map

A large pharmaceutical company markets on television what they describe as a “last chance” medication to delay cognitive impairment. Their advertisement is scary and demeaning to persons with dementia who have tried to live well and their caregivers who have provided so much help. It also implies that you are “sicker” than you necessarily are if you are prescribed the medication and that your caregiver may not be doing a good job.

Their advertising campaign has elicited bad feelings in me for years. Now I have a  prescription for their medication waiting for me to pick up from the pharmacy.

If I believed their crappy advertising suggestion that the end is near, I would be justified in feeling depressed and giving up. Just because you and your doctor think that their medication MIGHT help make the symptoms of cognitive decline be more bearable does not mean that you are not already living a good life with dementia or are somehow being neglected by your caregivers in spite of what the pharmaceutical companies imply. And with a smart doctor who starts early it does not mean the end is near.

Steamrolling patients and caregivers whose emotional, physical, and financial resources are already stretched probably adds further profits to the already obscene bottom lines, but it is not fair to push people further into feelings of inadequacy, helplessness, and guilt.

Somebody please explain to me why these companies do not need to be further regulated or (inter)nationalized.

A mind model (AKA mind map) of the ways television ads undermine the hard work of persons with dementia and their caregivers is shown below. Click on the image to expand it.

Two versions of the same map are shown. They differ only in formatting. I prefer the first one.